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Clan of Anais
The clan of Anaïs is the collective term for the matriarchal family which ruled New Endralon starting in 2788, and continuing for over two centuries beyond. The Presidency of Anais Kuzaki (2788-2791) The first Anaïs ruler of New Endralon was Sora Anaïs Kuzaki, known simply as Anaïs Kuzaki, or (in retrospect) Anaïs the First. Anaïs Kuzaki was a political leader of the Alianţa Anaïs, which helped overthrow the earlier House of Utesom in the mid 2700s, along side the Revolutionary Party. Kuzaki served as de-facto Prime Minister under Utesom, late in the elder self-styled Pharoah's reign, and continued her activity under the unity government that replaced the Utesom regime. Anaïs Kuzaki has been viewed as many things, but her rule was famous for its relative sanity, coming as it did between those of her predecessors, and her descendants. Kuzaki was an economic conservative, with socially liberal views towards most issues, and her reign was marked by significant economic and infrastructure growth. Unfortunately for New Endralon, her reign was also relatively short. Her political party, the Alianţa Anaïs, was essentially a cult of personality with little unifying ideology. As a result, her death in 2791 caused a major schizm and succession crisis, both in the nation, and in the party. The Reign of Jade the Foolish (2792-2858) In early 2791, Anaïs Kuzaki was assassinated by poisoning, by her younger brother, Koran. In the chaos that followed, Anaïs' ten year old daughter, Jade, was installed into the ceremonial duties of the Presidency, while the Prime Minister handled the actual workings of government. Koran attempted to use the young Jade to maneuver himself into power, as he had effectively been raising (and spoiling) the girl since she was six, while her mother was busy with the governance of the nation. To achieve his aims, he secretly founded, and tried to control, the Cult of Jade, which argued that Jade should be her mother's heir in all things, and proclaimed quasi-divinity on the young child. Meanwhile, two rival factions of the former Anaïs Alliance warred in the "Little Civil War" - as military factions loyal to General Chousheau warred with those loyal to the Prime Minister Rin Shizuka for several months. The chaos of the factions made conditions ripe for a pair of underlings to both warring leaders to seize control of the nation, by taking over and installing Jade as Acting President. Jade was sworn into office on her eleventh birthday, in 2792. Jade essentially grew up believing in her own divinity, and insulated from the consequences of her whims, as the Cult grew in power, ultimately controlling every aspect of daily life within the nation. Titled the Zeita (Goddess) of the nation, her word was law until her death in 2858, at the age of 77. Those few who actually met her and were not hardcore members of the cult relate stories of abysmal abuses and shocking idiocy at the head of the nation; the Zeita herself was never particularly bright, and was entirely uneducated, and during her reign was seldom seen sober. Her medical issues are the best documented portion of her life - she had during her life two kidney, three liver, five lung, and two heart transplants; most of these were necessitated due to her extremely heavy use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs - she was notably seen smoking while giving a government sponsored lecture about the dangers of tobacco, at the age of nine, before her reign technically began, and was believed to be a five pack a day smoker for most of her life. Jade's Pantheon Using sperm stored from by-then deceased uncle, Jade was impregnated several times during her 20s, giving birth to three daughters (Kukiko, Mizuko and Kinzoku) and a son (Tsuchiro). It was the hope of the Cult that her children would not only succeed, but give rise to a Pantheon of lesser deities for the Cult. With this goal, Jade gave birth a final time late in life, to a child reported to be her fourth daughter (Ichiko) by her own son. Tsuchiro also began, with the blessings of the Cult, giving Jade a large number of grandchildren with his sisters. Several of Tsuchiros elder sons also participated in the "family sport" with their aunts, sisters and cousins. One of these, officially, was Ai, the daughter of Mizuko by her cousin Ureshii (himself the son of Kinzoku and Tsuchiro, who had passed away the previous year). Thus Ai was both Jade's granddaughter and great granddaughter. According to the official biography of Ai published later, however, her actual father was Ichiro Maratsu, a palace guard who was not, despite the law at the time, castrated prior to his entry into personal service around the family - and was thus able to somewhat detangle Ai's genetic ancestry, at least on her father's side. Prior to Ai's tenth birthday, she was kidnapped by a different palace guard, although her official biography states this was under her own instructions, due to her desire to both see the "real world" outside the Palace, and to avoid the fates of her sisters in producing yet another generation of lesser divinities - particularly given her name. The truth is likely that she had already suffered such indignities, as the Cult attempted to instill the "Essence" of each child's pre-selected divinity area in various ways - notably, Hiko (named after "fire") died when she was burned to death, in an effort to instill that primal force into her being, for instance. During Jade's reign, she was known as "the Beautiful," "the Goddess" or "the Blessed." After her reign, she acquired a far less flattering title from historians; "the Foolish." The Reign of Ai the Terrible (2858-2890) Upon Jade's death in 2858, the New Communist Party of New Endralon swept in, and, with an Anaïs, the missing Ai, as its figurehead, was able to assume effective control of the nation in the chaos, assisted by a military revolt against the Cult. It was revealed that, unlike Ai's siblings, Ai's father was an attendant of Mizuko, who had not been castrated despite specific orders that all of the children's servants were to be eunuchs. While this left Ai's family tree a bit less ingrown than the rest of the clan's, Ai's position in the former pantheon (representing the aspect of "love") left her a bitter, homicidal, lunatic. Shortly after taking over as Supreme Leader of the newly declared Communist State, Ai's insanity came to light, when she ordered the Vice Chairman of the Communist Party (the foreign-born Vance Salazar, believed to be the real power behind the NCP to that date) killed on the spot, and took his assistant, the mousy Rerrin Hitomi, as her lesbian lover - of her "husband", he was rumored to have been eaten alive. While Ai claimed to have nothing in common with her grandmother, she actually shared a good many negative traits, including complete disregard for human life, a heavy tobacco habit (her preferred toxin was Tianian Cigars), and fits of murderous rampage, and a gruesome taste for human flesh. Unlike Jade, however, Ai "knew better," at least in theory - having been educated somewhat, and raised at least partially outside of the Cult. Ai's cruelty to political prisoners, in particular, became legendary - she would often personally execute the prisoners, after personally torturing them, in various ways; rumors had her variously raping, cannibalizing, dismembering, and disemboweling her victims. She reveled somewhat in her later years in her reputation domestically; one senior bureaucrat was overheard by her one day, referring to her as "Ai the Terrible," as many citizens whispered that name in fear. Rather than anger, Ai was amused by the title, and actually adopted it herself, proudly, at least within the palace. In 2890, with failing health, Ai left the nation to her twenty-three year old daughter, Ren, and named Ren's twin sister Soria, to be her protector. It remains a historical mystery who the girls' father was, as Ai was a confirmed lesbian her entire life. The Reign of Ren the Reformer (2890-2935) When Ai stepped down from ruling the nation, her daughters were already well prepared for the position, a relative rarity in the line's early years - Ren and Soria were 23 years old, the oldest any Anaïs has been upon taking over as ruler since Anaïs Kuzaki herself, and both had been worked into the workings of government for well over half their lives, ensuring a relatively seamless transition. Ren took the "throne," effectively, while Soria, the more cunning, took the position of Prime Minister. While Ren and Soria were both as spoiled as their mother, the girls had also had the advantage of some maturity prior to assuming the throne, more consistent education, and were considered even within the family to be "brighter" than their mother (who was herself a borderline genius - mad, certainly, but quite sharp). Ren was the "duller" of the two, but even at that she was intelligent and eloquent. Of the family insanity, the girls were more circumspect - rumors of these traits persisted, but unlike the reigns of Jade and Ai, little to no proof of random murders, cannibalistic orgies, or any of the other myriad evils made it to the public eye. The girls certainly took after their mother in many ways, but from the public perspective, the insanity had receded. Still, rumors persisted that the receding was merely from the public eye, and the girls were known as the Terror Sisters. Ren's key reforms to the nation involved the gradual restoration of a capitalist-based society, an evolution that had truly begun late in Ai's reign, but achieved de facto and de jure status, as the nation evolved. Ren also granted autonomy to Kuzaki province late in her term, proclaiming the nation to be the United Confederation of Kizenia and Kuzaki. While these acts alone seem small, the true reform she brought was the end of the culture of terror - during her term, the name of the Anaïs family was somewhat restored in dignity, and by the end of her reign the people approved of Ren openly, without coercion - and those who disapproved were allowed to speak their minds without fear, for the most part. Ren shared many traits, however, with her mother - she preferred cigars, and she preferred women over men. The latter trait left her childless, upon her decision to retire. She had intended Olga, her sister's daughter, to assume the throne, but Olga was shown to be "unsuitable" for an unspecified reason late in Ren's term, and Ren was forced to search elsewhere for her heir. (Olga's incident was covered up, but it is notable that Ren had adopted Olga as heir primarily because she reminded her of her own mother - and Olga's subsequent limited appearances indicated she was being heavily sedated. The rumors have her attempting to emulate some of Ai's early atrocities, but no details are available.) The reign of Alexandra the Fair (2935-3000) Alexandra, the granddaughter of Soria by her younger daughter, Maria, was selected as Ren's heir shortly before Ren resigned the throne. Alexandra was 16 upon her coronation. Prior to her selection as heir, Alexandra was preparing for a career in the military; her status as the second daughter of the second daughter of the ruling line did not make her a likely candidate for the throne. Despite the sudden shift, Alexandra proved a competent administrator, although she was more figurehead than executive during much of her early reign. Alexandra ultimately did, however, set much of the big picture agenda, particularly after her first decade on the throne. Her most famous use of the "royal" prerogative was to order the Dolgarian border opened to refugees, following a short-lived Dolgarian crackdown on racial minorities. This was a reversal of a century of Kizenian policy, but Alexandra stated in her memoirs that she felt a "family duty" to attempt to be a good humanitarian whenever it would not harm the nation as a whole. Alexandra was the first Anaïs family head to codify the family succession and standing rules, which had been informally instituted first by Ai. This included the use of the titles "dula Anaïs" and "jana Anaïs" to denote the two major divisions and branches of the family - those who descended from Ai were entitled to the higher "dula" rank, while those who were from Jade but not Ai were of the inferior "jana" rank. Two subordinate ranks were also created during her reign; the "dono Anaïs" rank (within Kuzaki) and the "baroni Anaïs" rank (in Kizenia), for those who were not blood descendants of Anaïs, but had been elevated for their service to the family. Alexandra ruled until her death in 3000. Silvia (3000-present) Silvia, the granddaughter of Alexandra by her son Anton, was named Alexandra's heir in 2987, replacing Soria (her aunt) after Soria married a man Alexandra disapproved of. She was crowned at the age of 19. Unlike Alexandra, Soria had been prepared from a very young age to the throne, and was involved in decisions late in Alexandra's life, actually serving as de-facto regent starting in 2998.